This weblog discusses the finer points of videogame character costumes.
Philosophy and rules:
1) The ideal costume looks cool, but also has a soul.
2) Overall aesthetics of the game also come into play.
3) A great costume can make a good game great or a bad game warrant a rental.
4) Unlockable outfits must be worth the trouble of obtaining it and playing through the game multiple times.
5) Cosplay is now in the mix!

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Some scans have popped up revealing the newest Tekken 6 character Miguel. The matador outfit is sort of cliché, but check out that luxurious fur-like coat. UPDATE: Some better picshave surfaced for Tekken 6. Here is a much better look at Miguel's coat:And now we have a good look at Zafina's other outfit too:I couldn’t find Odin Sphere at the EBs I checked so ended up just ordering it through Amazon. Yes, I could have “pre-ordered” it to ensure a copy, but to hell with that jazz. On the bright side, a friend was able to get me a copy of the Odin Sphere art book that shipped with first editions of the game in Japan. It’s very, very nice. I was contemplating bidding on one off eBay, but the asking prices are getting too high. As much as I love the book, I wouldn’t pay more than $10-15 (I’ve seen auctions hit around $40+). I’m sure there will be a proper Odin Sphere book later that will have even more art that would actually be worth paying $40+ for.I did end up giving EB some cash for their ongoing clearance sale. Picked up the collectors edition of Final Fantasy XII for $30. Pretty happy with that. I’m not expecting the special features disc to be anything special, but the metallic case sure is snazzy. I’m definitely not starting this until I get and finish Odin Sphere though. Still, I’m pretty psyched about it.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

It seems like I’ve been waiting for Odin Sphere to come out since forever. It’s use of 2D art and old school animation looks fantastic. It doesn’t appear to have alternate costumes, but the core designs are good enough without them. I’ll be posting more about it once I start playing, but there are a few other titles that caught my eye recently.

Etrian Oddyessy came out this week for the DS and looks to be a very old fashioned dungeon crawler that forces you to manually map your exploration. The character art looks pretty neat, although some of it is waaaaay too loli-rific for my tastes. I mean, check out the female Ronin art. Bandages across her chest. CREEPY. It’s gotten average to low reviews, but the killer for me is there is nearly zero story. It’s all about the challenge of leveling and exploring. Count me out.I was always tempted by Shining Force Neo. Diablo-style game mechanics + the Shining world sounded like a great mix. The graphics and other issues kept me away though. Released a few weeks ago, Shining Force EXA is the follow-up to that game and seems to have improvements in every meaningful area. The most pertinent to this blog are two playable characters who each have 10 (I think it’s at least ten) different outfits. I believe it’s tied to level progression, but it may be possible to change into whichever one you like.

Monday, May 07, 2007

I’m actually surprised you can only unlock one extra outfit per character in Guitar Hero II. You’d think having a multitude of great threads would be important to rock stars. In any case, let’s start with this first grouping. They’re just ok, bordering on bland. Pandora’s Feathers are kinda neat though. Now we’re talking. Not only do these alternates look snazzy, they have cool names too. Eddie Knox (far left) can choose either the Reno or Vegas outfit (he’s wearing Vegas), Casey Lynch (middle) can choose between Shirts and Skins, and Axel Steel (right) can choose between Shirt and Other Shirt. Nice. These two are in a class by themselves. Johnny Napalm is rockin the Liberty Spikes and Lars Umlaut’s imposing armor is called Gargoyle. Awesome.